According to the Harris County medical examiner’s office, the motorist who caused a huge pipeline explosion and fire in Deer Park last October committed suicide.
An online summary of the death case on the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences website states that Jonathan McEvoy Sr., the driver of the white Lexus SUV that veered out of a Walmart parking lot before colliding through a chain-link fence and into the above-ground pipeline on September 16, died from blunt traumatic and thermal injuries, and that his manner of death was suicide.
The natural gas liquids pipeline exploded in the Sept. 16 disaster, sending flames upward for over four days. The extreme heat scorched and melted overhead electrical wires, as well as some surrounding homes and cars, forcing hundreds of Deer Park and LaPorte businesses and families to escape.
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It s unclear what evidence led medical examiners to rule McEvoy s death a suicide. Institute officials could not be reached for comment at this time. Late Tuesday, the case synopsis was revised to reflect the completion of the medical examiner’s report.
The crash is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Deer Park Police Department, which chose not to comment. Before making any additional comments, we are still awaiting the ME’s final report, the department’s spokesperson, Lt. Chris Brown, stated on Tuesday.
Family members of McEvoy, who were not immediately available for comment, had earlier stated that they thought the man had probably experienced a seizure prior to the incident and that he had experienced sporadic seizures in recent years.
The man’s estranged wife, Delma McEvoy, earlier told the Houston Landing that McEvoy had asked his roommate if she wanted to accompany him to the adjacent Walmart to get some new shoes while using his SUV.
According to Delma McEvoy, investigators had questioned close acquaintances and family members about Jonathan McEvoy Sr.’s possible involvement in fights, whether he had left any notes, and whether he had received payment for crashing into the pipeline. According to her, nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the days preceding the horrific crash, there had been no fights, and there was no letter.
According to her, the questions implied that the likelihood of someone having a seizure and the likelihood that they would accelerate and hit that point out of all places was high.
According to a November Landing article, senior officials in Deer Park and LaPorte stated that the pipeline crash was not an accident and that the driver’s medical condition had nothing to do with it.
At the time, Jerry Mouton, Jr., the mayor of Deer Park, told the Landing that the probe was criminal in nature because it was essentially a planned conduct. “You don’t just end up where that car ended up,” Moulton continued. It was not a coincidence.
In a separate interview with the Landing, Johnny Morales, the emergency management coordinator for La Porte, stated that the crash was not caused by a medical issue.
Mouton and Morales did not elaborate on the specific evidence that backed up their opinions. A spokesperson for Mouton later sought to soften the mayor s comments saying he had meant to say the crash would have had to have been a medical emergency or an intentional criminal act.
A Houston Landinginvestigation published in Decemberfound there have been at least 36 reported incidents of cars, trucks and other vehicles crashing into above-ground hazardous liquid and gas transmission pipelines across the country since 2019. Texas was the scene of 12 of those pipeline accidents. Those crashes have caused three deaths, more than $21 million in property damage and resulted in evacuations, fires, gas and oil leaks and environmental contamination.
The number of crashes is likely higher because operators don t have to report incidents to regulators at the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration where damage is minimal.
In many cases, the Landing found that pipelines carrying hazardous and flammable chemicalsoften had little protection against damage from vehiclesdriving on nearby roadways and parking lots. Rules let pipeline operators determine what kind of protection their pipelines need, and many that have been hit by vehicles had only a chain link or wooden fence, records show.
The Deer Park pipeline struck by McEvoy s vehicle had only a chain link fence around it, even though it was near the traffic of busy Spencer Highway and the Walmart parking lot.
The pipeline s operator, Energy Transfer, since has surrounded it with concrete barriers.
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